Wednesday, May 11, 2016

S&G Gross Co., a family-owned pawnbroker business, was in business from 1801-2016.

Customers in this #pawnshop typically exchanged items such as jewelry for money and agreed to repay the amount borrowed plus interest to redeem their property. If a customer could not repay the loan after an agreed amount of time, the item was forfeited by the owner and put up for sale as collateral by the shop.
Photo from 2009 appears in our recently published book "Store Front II-A History Preserved" along with an in-depth interview with the 4th-generation owner David Gross. He told us that the #storefront #signage was made of porcelain enamel and that the time-honored three-ball symbol of the #pawnbroker profession that they have on their #sign actually dates back to the Medicis.
Sadly, after 115 years in business, they recently closed. David explained to us that "the recent recession has actually hurt our business even though you would think it would help. But more people are out of work and most of our customers actually have jobs but they just need extra money between pay checks." We imagine this was a factor in why they ultimately closed their store.